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The denial of Sarai both in Egypt and Gerar (Gen. 12: 10-20, and 20: 1-10) is
connected with Sarai being taken into the harem of the monarch, and with divine
interposition and warning. The repetition of these things is not merely to show
Abraham's frailty, but to show the two-fold attempt of satan to contaminate the line of
the Seed. Space will not allow us to trace the ever central attack through the long course
of Israel's history. The massacre of the male children by Pharaoh is echoed by the same
evil work of Herod. The parable of the Tares gives us the method adopted by satan when
he found that in spite of all his efforts the long promised Seed had come, and that the
Messiah had proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, and that some had received the
message.
Referring back again to Gen. 3:, we must notice that there are two seeds mentioned.
The Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Now as we translate the one, we
must in all fairness translate the other. Therefore, if the Seed of the woman is Christ, the
seed of the serpent is antichrist; if moreover we may extend the term to include believers,
so must we allow the term to include unbelievers. The parable before us exposes the
policy of the wicked one. Change of purpose he does not know, but change of tactics he
will ever allow, so that he may draw nearer to his end.
Among those who were professedly the religious people of the day, and in their own
estimation "sons of the kingdom," were those who were really "sons of the wicked one."
Matt. 3: opens with the ministry of John the Baptist. The voice of the forerunner was
heard,
"and Jerusalem and all Judæa, and all the country round about the Jordan went forth
unto him, and were being baptized in the river Jordan by him, openly confessing their
sins."
By reason of the fact that John proclaimed that "the kingdom of the heavens is at hand,"
all who came to be baptized were professedly those who desired a place in that long
hoped-for kingdom. Here it is that we catch a glimpse of the Devil's seed, ready to be
sown among the good wheat:--
"But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto
them, Offspring of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the coming wrath?"
We must not be too hasty in concluding that these Pharisees and Sadducees all turned
back; John immediately continued:--
"Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance, and do not think to say within yourselves, We
have Abraham for our father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham."
John warns them that though they may look so much like the wheat so that it would be
impossible to distinguish them then, yet when Christ came He would reveal the secrets of
many hearts; the fruit would manifest which was wheat, and which was darnel, which
were the sons of the kingdom, and which the sons of the wicked one. After referring to
the exceeding greatness of Christ, John uses a figure which links this passage very
suggestively with the parable before us:--